Warriors pull off baseball sweep of Chokers

WALLA WALLA - One day after suffering defeats in both ends of a doubleheader at the hands of Tacoma, Walla Walla rebounded to sweep a non-league baseball twin bill from Grays Harbor Sunday afternoon at Warriors Field on the school's Tausick Way campus.

The Warriors grappled the Chokers 9-3 in the first game and 11-1 in the nightcap to improve to 5-3 on the season.

Walla Walla continues a season-opening 16-game homestand on Saturday when Skagit Valley comes to town for an 11 a.m. doubleheader. The Cardinals will be followed by Prairie Baseball Academy - for the second time this season - on Sunday for an 11 a.m. twin bill, with Edmonds and Shoreline due in the following weekend .

The Warriors got off to a good start on Sunday with a single run in the first inning, two in the second and three in the third to build a 6-0 advantage. The Chokers sliced the lead in half with a three-spot in the fourth before the Warriors closed out the scoring with a three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth.

Kasey Knigge and Connor Lawhead split up the pitching duties for Walla Walla in the first game. Knigge worked the first six innings and Lawhead hurled three shutout innings to finish up. Between them, they allowed six Grays Harbor hits, including two each by Erik Widener and Justin Archibald.

The Warriors, meanwhile, pounded on five Chokers pitchers for 12 hits. Cody Poznanski had a four-hit day, Michael Kilpatrick collected a pair of Jared Jordan slammed a two-run home run to highlight WWCC's three-run sixth inning.

Jordan went deep again in the second game, a leadoff homer in the bottom of the sixth inning that accounted for Walla Walla's final run of the lopsided victory. It was his third home run of the young season.

"We got back to playing aggressive today," Warriors coach Dave Meliah said, drawing a comparison between Sunday's sweep and Saturday's 9-1 and 7-3 losses to the Titans.

"We did the little things that win you ball games," Meliah said. "The team that showed up at the yard today is the team that we hope to be for the rest of the season."